All Things Urban

Roskilde University is a state university founded in 1972 with the objective of providing research and education at the highest level in the fields of natural science, social science and the humanities.

These activities at Roskilde University are organised in six departments; degrees are offered in a wide range of subjects at Bachelor, Master and Ph.D. levels.

Many study programmes are now being offered in English at both undergraduate and graduate levels, thus creating an exciting and inspiring study environment for both Danish students and students coming from abroad.

The Doctoral School

You will be enrolled as a PhD student at the Doctoral School for People and Technology framing research that seek to address sustainability, often by applying experimental approaches and situating the individuals active and learning involvement. The research comprises approaches of a human, societal, health and information technological character. The Doctoral School has five PhD programs with each of their focus points: Information Technology; Learning, Working life and Social innovation; Research in Health and Society; Social Psychology of Everyday Life and Society, Space and Technology (https://ruc.dk/en/doctoral-school-people-and-technology)

The PhD position will be part of the PhD Program in Society, Space and Technology (SST) that explores issues about space and/or technology in a societal context. SST takes an interdisciplinary approach and draws mainly on technology-natural science and especially the social sciences. Two larger research groups are associated with the program: METRIK (Environment, Energy, Transport, Regulation, Innovation and Climate Policy) and MOSPUS (Space, Place, Mobility and Urban Studies) (https://ruc.dk/en/phd-programme-society-space-and-technology)

METRIK has focus on the interaction between social development, technology and the natural environment in relation to planning and regulation of environment, energy, production and climate (https://forskning.ruc.dk/da/organisations/miljø-energi-transport-regulering-innovation-og-klimapolitik):

MOSPUS has focus on the spatial reorganization of society from a social science perspective of sociology, geography, anthropology and planning studies. (https://forskning.ruc.dk/da/organisations/rum-sted-mobilitet-og-by-mospus

SST has a number of overlapping themes in and across the two research groups such as:

• Technology in society
• Sustainable development, bioeconomy and circular economy
• Mobility, transport and tourism
• Spatialities of migration and multicultural cities
• Urban participation, empowerment and social movements
• Environmental planning and regulation
• Spatial design, spatial planning and regional planning.

This is an open PhD. position where candidates can develop their own research idea and agenda. Overall, the proposal must be aligned with the core themes of the SST PhD program, METRIK or MOSPUS and the department’s research focus (new focus on sustainability broadly understood). More specifically, your proposal must:

• have a focus on basic research (e.g. not purely applied research) and therefore have strong theoretical or conceptual component.
• address issues around 1) technology and society or 2) society and space or 3) technology and space or 4) society, space and technology.
• Research proposals opting for the METRIK research group must revolve around environmental planning and/or sustainable development
• Research proposal opting for the MOSPUS research group must address issues around the spatial organization of places and societies in relation to, for example, urban or regional planning and urban everyday life.

You must hold a master’s degree or equivalent within the fields of geography, sociology, anthropology, urban design, spatial designs and society, urban planning, environmental planning or environmental engineering.

You are required to be enterprising and to possess good communication skills and to be a visible, involved participant in the department’s daily activities, in addition to being willing to engage in disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration across the department.

We’re not fully sure whether this role is open to international candidates. If you would need visa sponsorship or work authorisation, we recommend checking directly with the employer before applying.